Great Northern Lodge, Whitefish Montana

Sixty five miles south from the border of Canada sits a small Montana town with a history for it’s busy train station that the Great Northern Railway rolls by. Complimented with beautiful landscapes where the days can run long and the fish are big, Dragon Forge LTD was invited to forge, fabricate and build several sets of custom lighting fixtures, fireplace doors and other items, such as a collaboration working along side a woodworker, to accomplish a couple of custom tables. We set our schedule, we could see what needed to happen and planned for it.

Rory reflects on the two chandeliers in the great room:

“These two Great Room chandeliers, and not to forget about the smaller one that sits in the tower room, were inspired and drawn by our “modern rustic” forge work that is achieved by not only custom, hand forged iron but the results of the eye to detail, application of using modern and old techniques to accomplish the task at hand. Knowing what was coming, I myself had to prepare mentally for this creation. Craig has always been a stickler for the small details and has always reminded me why:

“If you take care of the small things, the big things will easily work themselves out.”

The first two weeks I started to work on custom tools needed for this, layouts, materials and templates to assist me, managing the iron and manipulation of the material. It’s one thing to simply make it look like the drawing, its another to give it life. I want anything I forge to have personality, even a name. These two chandeliers ended up being nicked named “the twins” or “the brothers.” They had their own personalities and challenges that I had to constantly tend too and make sure were correct. The brothers took the most time due to their size. The other chandeliers in the house all got the same amount of attention to detail and were warehoused until we were ready to ship.

The Fireplace doors

Seven sets of custom fireplace doors. Five doors were hinged and fully functional, one free standing screen and a small door in the hallway that simply slipped into place held by spring clips. We had to adjust our approach to these doors as our common back frame technique would not work with the varying open fields of large rock that surrounded each opening. Each firebox was unique in their own, had their own challenges that we designed around. Rory worked on the large fire place doors located in the Great Room, Entertainment Room, the free standing screen and a smaller set that resides outside. Craig worked on the two small sets located in the Mother-in-law suite.

We can let the pictures talk for themselves. As always these projects get very intimate with details, conversations and lots of samples. Work varying from California, Colorado, Kentucky, Florida and New York, Dragon Forge LTD completed another chapter in Whitefish, Montana. A home that will be around for generations to come and custom ironwork that decorates another beautiful build that we were able to be part of. Can’t help but smile and feel the accomplishment of the growth of abilities and experience from a great client that invited us to be part of his home.